After each election, the list of states in which the various minor parties are qualified changes somewhat, based on the election returns.
Because it is more difficult for parties to remain on the ballot immediately after a presidential election, compared to a mid-term year, the only accurate measurement to determine whether a particular party made headway in polling enough votes to stay on the ballot, is to compare its situation to what its situation was exactly four years ago.
Relative to December 2004, these are the changes:
Libertarian: gained Massachusetts and North Carolina, lost South Dakota. On in 27. The gain in Massachusetts is dependent on the party’s U.S. Senate nominee, Robert Underwood, having polled at least 3%. He polled 3.18%.
Green: relative to December 2004, gained Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana and West Virginia, and lost Alaska, Hawaii, and Vermont, with New Mexico ambiguous. Assuming the party is still qualified in New Mexico, it is on in 16 states. For purposes of this comparison, if a party has any ballot status for any statewide office in Connecticut, it is on the list.
Constitution: relative to December 2004, gained Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Vermont, and lost Wisconsin. The party is now on in 20 states, the most ever following a presidential election. Also it has a chance to persuade the Kansas Reform Party to affiliate with it. For purposes of this list, California is deemed to still be a state affiliate of the Constitution Party, although further court proceedings will determine that for sure. The party is on in 19 states if California isn’t included.
Working Families Party: relative to December 2004, gained Delaware, Oregon, South Carolina.
Prohibition Party: relative to December 2004, gained Florida.
Relative to 2004, the Reform Party has lost one state (Colorado), but that loss occurred in 2006, not 2008. The Reform Party in 2008 polled enough votes to remain ballot-qualified in Kansas, and it didn’t need to pass any vote test in Mississippi, Louisiana or Florida. Therefore it has 4 states.
The Socialist Workers Party continues to be ballot-qualied in Delaware and Florida. The Socialist Party continues to be qualified in Florida.
Yesterday, in the Show-Me State, seems the Libertarians failed and Constitution Party prevailed:
The Missouri Libertarian Party, for the first time in about 15 years, failed to garner over 2% of a statewide vote. The MO. Constitution Party’s state treasurer’s candidate won about two & a half percent. Thus it appears the Const. Party, for the first time, becomes an official “established party” and thus not needing to petition for local and statewide offices for the next two statewide election cycles.
MO Libertarians keep their “established party” status only for the next election cycle (in two years). (If at that time they get over 2% then they are “renewed” for another four years.)
Likely the problem was that there was no MO LP candidate for two of the statewide races which could have put them over the 2% hurdle.
see Missouri results —-
http://www.sos.mo.gov/enrweb/statewideresults.asp?eid=256
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p.s.: I petitioned all day at the polls yesterday and informally chatted with many voters exiting the polls. Hope springs eternal — I found that a large percentage of young (first-time) voters were very sympathetic with either Green Party or Libertarian. (!)
The Missouri Libertarians are still ballot-qualified because they polled over 2% in 2006. In Missouri, when a party polls 2% in a statewide race, that is good for two elections, so the Libertarian Party is still on. But it will need to poll 2% for Auditor or US Senate in 2010.
So did the Greens have 15 states with ballot access after the 04 election as well?
Unfortunately the MO LP did not have a candidate for Attorney General, the only statewide race with no third-party candidate, while the Constitution Party had the only third-party candidate in the state treasurer’s race and were able to hit 2% there. The MO LP candidates for U.S. Senate and state auditor both exceeded 2% in 2006, but the Constitution Party did not run candidates for some reason that year. The Progressive Party did, garnering about a percentage point each.
In Nevada, the Libertarian Party retained its spot on the ballot with the vote for Nathan Santucci, who needed to poll a number of votes greater than 1% of the statewide total cast for the 3 US House seats. Santucci polled about 15,000 votes even though he was only running for a State Assembly seat. He had been endorsed by a Las Vegas daily newspaper and got 22.3% in a 3-person race, although the third candidate was an Independent American Party nominee; no Republican was running.
The Green loss of Maryland is also somewhat misleading. The Maryland Green Party successfully petitioned for ballot access in 2006 – it retains that access through the 2010 election.
thanks to poster #6; I fixed the blog entry.
Richard,
The Green Party regained ballot status in Hawaii earlier this year. I think that we’re on until until 2018.
No, the Green Party is not on in Hawaii. It is necessary for a party to qualify 3 elections in a row, before getting its 10 years of automatic status. Greens petitioned in Hawaii in 2008, but didn’t meet the vote test, so now Greens must petition again for 2010 and 2012 (or else meet the vote test in 2010 and 2012).
Richard, do you have the relevant statute for Hawai’i? We were apparently under the wrong impression all along.
Richard, with this 10 year automatic rule when does or
did the Natural Law Party be disqualified in Hawaii?